Her Soyuz craft was launched to the ISS from Baikonur, Kazakhstan, on Monday 18 September.

Ahead of her lift-off, Ms Ansari said she was an ambassador for attracting private investment into space programmes. Her family sponsored the X-Prize, which honoured the first private vehicle to make it into space.

The space explorers brought back snails, worms and barley grown during experiments aboard the ISS.